Page 6 - Industry tours for students_1506344_1

Planning the tour COMMUNICATION After you have received the approval from your administration to conduct the tour, it is time to verify all the facts: who goes, to where, when, and how. The policy as to what paperwork is required for an off campus adventure varies district by district and school by school. Speaking from experience, give yourself at the very least, 4 weeks to get trip permits signed, notarized in some locations, and returned in time for the trip. This in itself can be a challenging task. In order to make sure that all the bases are covered, someone needs to get a letter going that tells all those involved with the trip about the date and time, various locations, contacts and phone numbers, preferably cell. (See appendix) Email this information to all parties (educators, tour facility contacts, bus company) and have a hard copy with you the morning of the trip. LOCATION Where to go will be the most time consuming part of the entire adventure. To convince a facility to consider allowing tours, we’ve learned to stress the benefits of hosting a tour. Hosting school tours provides the facility with an opportunity for community service and positive public relations. The tour may provide an opportunity for outreach that can help establish a partnership with schools offering aligned technical programs, and showcases the business to students as future potential employees. In our follow up surveys with industry partners, 81% responded that tour was a good use of company time and resources and 19% somewhat agreed. Finding a location whose processes and products match what you would like the students to experience. You will want to confirm that the manufacturing processes are hi-tech, and there is a lot of activity that will be exciting for students to see. Example: Connecting human actions and programming with real robots at work on the factory floor = exciting. Is the experience aligned to the curriculum you are teaching back in the classroom, or an activity you plan to implement? (FLATE has print and online-ready resources for you if needed www.flate.pbwiki.com). Places to get help in this treasure hunt are regional manufacturing organizations, engineering societies, economic development councils and local chambers of commerce. When looking for locations, we limit our sites to within 75 miles of the school so that a round trip, including about 1 ½ hours in the facility (to make it cost effective), usually takes no more than 5 hours. Of course, stopping for lunch will add to the overall time, but that is up to the teacher. 6